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Square Mile Of Fun

Published By British Airways

A Pim Advertising Supplement

By Monty Modlyn

ABOUT 300 years ago the Lord Mayor of London, with his Aldermen, used to go hunting in the pastures of Soho—as did Henry VIII before them.

Nowadays visitors from all over the world and from all over Britain still go hunting in Soho—not for foxes or game, but to eat and drink and be entertained. Soho has hundreds of restaurants of every nationality, from Mexican to Chinese, Kosher to Greek, Italian and French. With its theatres, cinemas and nightclubs, this really is the entertainment centre of London.

Soho, in the City of Westminster, is contained within an area bounded by Oxford Street, Regent Street, Coventry Street, Shaftesbury Avenue up to Cambridge Circus, and the Charing Cross Road. Let’s throw a coin and decide (that is how I did it) where to enter this famous square mile. I started close to Oxford Circus, passing the London Palladium in Argyll Street, the great variety and vaudeville theatre, where stars like Danny Kaye and Frank Sinatra have topped the bill and when at some time all the best British ‘artistes’ and acts perform. In Great Marlborough Street the great store of Liberty’s

faces you, with its outstanding display of silks, materials and fashions.

And close by the stage door of the Palladium is the Marlborough Street Magistrates’ Court. Here you can watch the scenes and dramas of the court proceedings from the public galleries, open every morning and afternoon, admission free, and no tickets required. Cross the road from the court and you will see the name of Carnaby Street—yes the Carnaby Street—a street now completely closed to traffic and paved with a rubber carpet of gold, orange and white patterns. Carnaby Street started in the 19505, with a weird fantasy of trendy and colourful clothes. With its strange “head” shops (shops with novelties and weird souvenirs), its small flea market and some of Lon don’s trendies! dressers, it is a place not to be missed. But visit during the hours of 9.30 am to 6 pm when the shops are open. After that, although the display windows are well lit up, the crowds are gone and it be comes a quiet backwater of Soho Village.

Just around the corner from Car naby Street is Beak Street. Here, at Nos 41 and 45, is one of Soho’s

happiest and friendliest restaurants.

It may not be plush and all that exotic, yet it’s so different. Why?

The Lord Byron is a Greek taverna with a proprietor known to everyone as Simon the Greek. A more ener getic and hospitable gentleman would be hard to find. The Lord Byron has become the favourite meeting place of Fleet Street cartoonists. On the walls you can see their work—fun is made of politicians of all shades and witty comments go with the sketches.

At lunchtime, here, alongside some of the Soho workers and business folk, you can enjoy tasty dishes like mousaka, kebabs costing under £l, and a bottle of white Greek wine at about £1.25. At night the scene changes, with bouzouki music and dancing down the aisle between the tables, and with the guests coming from the London suburbs and over seas. Don’t worry when everyone starts throwing and smashing plates— it really is an old Greek custom, ex pressing happiness.

If you would like to rest a while, search out Golden Square—a quiet backwater of roses and greenery, only a few hundred yards from Picca dilly Circus. In the centre of the

gardens a worn statue of George II will be looking at you as you feed! the sparrows and the pigeons.

Close to Piccadilly Circus, and be tween Coventry Street and Shaftesbury' Avenue, is Gerrard Street, London’s; only Chinatown. If you want a.

Chinese barber, or to take lessons in Chinese, to visit supermarkets withi every kind of Chinese delicacy or' even see Chinese films, it’s all here.

The restaurants are genuine and traditional—no westernised Chinese: dishes, unless you insist. Mr Tirm Cheung, whose family comes from Canton, is the proprietor of the Cultural Centre shop, where you cam get books and Chinese papers, flowm over daily by British Airways, lan terns, ornaments and Chinese medi cines, like sea-coconut, and the great: buck-up mixture of herbs of Ginseng: roots. Mr Cheung thought that his; special “Tonic for the Brain” at only 60 pence, made by the Great Eastemi Medicine Company of Hong Kong, could only do me good. I’m sure Mr Cheung meant this in the kindest possible Chinese way! If you are lucky enough to be in London in late January or February, look out for the Chinese New Year —celebrated with great spirit in Chinatown. In Gerrardl Street there are dancers and tableaux, and the street is beautifully decorated! —looking like High Street, Peking; I imagine.

You must visit Rupert Street and Berwick Street with their wonderful! fruit and vegetable markets, fre quented by a cosmopolitan collection of customers and actors and actresses from the nearby theatres. George

Soho denizens Nat Miller and George Sumpter.

Sumpter, with his tough weatherworn face, is still working at 68 years of age. He started on a fruit barrow as a child and still lives and loves work ing in his “lovely Soho’’. Though George reckons that “Soho was really Scho’’ back in his younger days when Jessie Matthews the actress, then a child, used to dance around her family’s own barrows and help out in the market. From nine in the morn ing until around three o’clock in the afternoon the markets of Berwick Street and Rupert Street are in full swing.

Britain’s film industry headquarters are all around Soho, from 20th Century Fox, Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Warner Brothers to small film producers like Nat Miller, who was born in Broadwick Street off Berwick Street market. Nat, whose hobbies are helping the Variety Club of Great Britain, the greatest of children’s charities, insists Soho has more life and vitality than any area in London.

He loves Soho, has his offices in Wardour Street, and does all his shop ping from among the hundreds of delicatessen shops and stalls in the market all around him. Nat Miller reckons —“you name it, we’ve got it— from food to fashions, to fun and entertainment, to suit every taste”.

The theatres in the Shaftesbury Avenue area are all grouped close to gether from the Piccadilly Theatre to the Lyric, Globe, Queens, the Palace and the Phoenix in the Charing Cross Road. Here you can see some of the greatest of actors and actresses in the world in plays for which ticket prices are less than half the cost of New fork’s.

Carry on past the Palace Theatre o Charing Cross Road, where the iozens of small book shops with rare and varied books on every subject are close to the world’s greatest book shop, Foyles, which these days is run Ml ss Christina Foyle, the daughter >f the founder. Here you can browse hrough some of the millions of )ooks arranged on several floors, vhile mixing with professors and tudents of every kind of profession, fo visit Foyles is a Soho experience lever to be forgotten.

Round the corner in Dean Street here is such a selection of cafes and

restaurants you wonder where all the people come from to fill them up.

In Soho Square, another green oasis, you will see a red-brick building with white flag posts. This is the Eglise Protestante Francaise de Londres—a church founded on July 24, 1550, by the Royal Charter of Edward the VI, who granted asylum to the Huguenots from France. There are regular ser vices here on Sunday.

Across Soho Square is a Roman Catholic church, with masses start ing on Sunday at 6.30 in the morning and going throughout the day.

If you are tired of walking why not sit down in the small French tea shop and patisserie—Mason Bertaux in Greek Street, founded in 1871!

They serve exquisite pastries until 6 pm Tuesdays to Saturdays and until 1 pm on Sundays.

Walk down Old Compton Street with its Italian delicatessen shops and their window displays of wine in straw baskets, onions and cooked hams hanging from the ceilings, and bottles of wine at 45p a bottle. At night Old Compton Street alters greatly when the shops close and the entertainment starts. You can see spectacular films on the wide, wide screen of Cinerama at the Casino.

During the day Soho is a business quarter populated chiefly by office workers; at night it becomes an enter-

tainment centre where you can take a stroll and en joy its liveliness, its people and its very special atmos phere. I can promise you a memor able night out.

Here's Fay O'Sullivan, our sales agent in Papua New Guinea, whom we told you about last month. She will be pleased to help you when you are planning to travel with British Airways. Her telephone number during business hours is Port Moresby 53200 extension 34. Out of business hours she'll be on 53481.